Timothy Joseph Elzinga, located in Northern Ontario, gazed out his window last Friday night and noticed some strange lights after being awoken by his 2-year-old son at 1:30 am. So, he stepped outside and for a closer look before realizing it had nothing to do with the Northern Lights, but is rather a natural phenomenon known as light pillars. These are caused by light reflecting off ice crystals in the sky. Continue reading for more pictures and information.
“With temperatures dropping to 0 degrees Fahrenheit (about -18 degrees Celsius), dense clusters of ice crystals formed, creating the perfect vessels to reflect light. What Elzinga saw wasn’t really a column of light. These light pillars were merely an optical illusion as the homes, businesses, street lights, and traffic lights caused a collective reflection off the ice crystals,” reports My Modern Met.
